My Policeman

Convenient set of diaries to facilitate the story moving back in time to the 1950s. I think the scenes depicting Brighton mid 20th century seemed very authentic. Homosexuality at that time was a crime. It must have been quite common in same sex relationships for one (or both) to marry some one of the opposite sex in order to hide their preferred sexuality. This film tells the story of 3 people and such a marriage in a very sensitive and credible way. Quite a thought provoking film contrasting how homosexuals were thought of and treated mid 20th century with present day. The story is told through Marian reading Patrick's diaries of the 1950s. Both she and he love Tom (My Policeman). If I have any criticism it would be that I felt Tom's perspective of having the love of 2 people and how this affected him was not depicted. I'm left wondering about the missing years in the film was he remorseful, was he a good husband ? Did Tom and Marian have the children they so desired ?

Brokeback Mountain perfected the tragically doomed period gay love story and "My Policeman" borrows more than a few beats from the original masterpiece. Emma Corrin is basically a more naive and developed version of Michelle Williams's character, both remarkable in each part to be fair.

The whole thing has a sightly deja-vu feeling and is classic to a fault. I guess this explains the bad reviews but, truth is, this is an absolutely fine film. It certainly didn't deserve all the hate especially compared to that other and really terrible Harry Styles vehicule. Here his soft spoken acting perfectly fits the blunt straightforwardly straight character. The harsh selfishness of youngTom is the most fascinating and refreshing element of the film.

My Policeman uses the traditional biographic structure of back and forth timelines to great results. The idealism of the 50s sequences full of gorgeous arts, elegant flats, cosy countryside and rapturous love is in stark contrast with the gloomy grey suburban present days. It is true than the movie would have benefited from a more balanced use of the present time rather than just being the obvious reminder of a world of redemption and social progress.

But My Policeman is gripping as an exploration of the dark places romance can put us through.

Harry Styles helped me propose to my girlfriend in October of 2014, so its hard for me not to be partial to him. Went into this movie having no idea what it was about and I'm glad. I will say that although Styles' acting skills have improved greatly, he was still outshined by his cast mates. There were times where his emotions came across as disingenuous and flat, but also times where I could tell that he's been working on his chops. Now, not knowing what I was going into, I must say I was quite surprised at some of the moments in this movie. There were a couple of things I wish they had conveyed better, such as the time between the 50s and 90s. I felt like there was big gap missing and I was left wondering what happened or how they lived their lives out between those years. I would recommend this to most of my friends, although I know some would cringe at the "love making" scenes. I, personally, was not put off by this and found it quite romantic at times, although Patrick did come across as pushy and off putting many times, almost creep like. In the end, I really enjoyed the film and look forward to seeing many more from Harry Styles. He's only going to improve.

I've not read the book this is based on, so I'm torn if this is actually something of value or just a film version of something similar to a 1950's paperback type novel about "forbidden love." Somehow it has the feel of both. One thing it does have is a miscast actor as the pivotal character in this love triangle between two men and a one woman. Harry Styles showed a lot of potential in his small role in Dunkirk and he is not terrible here at all, but he totally lacks any sort of gravity or depth necessary for this role. He's a novice and it shows. Somehow the film is still interesting despite that. It's a three character film played by six actors in two different time periods, the late 1950's and the early 2000's. The other five all give fine performances of which I appreciated Gina McKee the most. This is very well directed, though it is not exactly an original storyline, but it still has relevancy and it is also a reminder of just how far gay rights have come since those horrid times not that many years ago. This is ultimately a sad story of three people who were never able to have the lives they wanted, most of that society's fault, some their own. There are some good old songs used to great effect here and the whole film has an appropriate mood. It's flawed, but I still admire some of it even if it might be similar to a 1950's forbidden love paperback.

Not reading the book, being interested by music of Harry Stiles and admiring Rupert Everett, it is just easy to not ignore this movie.

The expectation - maybe influenced by Firebird by Peeter Rabane. Sure, different context but same spider webb of intolerance .

The film is just gifted. Good acting, fair story, seductive images.

But you can not feel the tension , emotions and the deepness of the inner fights of characters.

So, you have one verdict - a beautiful film. But the connections are too fragile and you feel entire story as exterior one .

But it works.

And the delicate bitterness remains a precious gift from Michael Grandage.